The Science Museums' path to a Pain Less exhibition. A blog exploring the content and creation of our exhibition on pain.

Painfully unaware

Anaesthesia has been used by medics for over 100 years to render patients unconscious during painful procedures, but how much do we understand about how it works? What happens in our brains when we lose consciousness? And how much do we really experience under anaesthesia? New technology is enabling us to answer these questions, and scientists are revealing surprising facts about the unconscious brain.

Watch a video of Carol’s experience under anaesthesia and an explanation by her consultant anaesthetist Andrew Morley.